Asian Fortune Your source for all things Asian American
By Corih Kim
On August 26, Deok-Yeol Baek, and Yong-Seok Sim arrived in DC, after two months of cross-country cycling. They left Los Angeles on June 27 with the intent to end their trip in New York, to spread awareness of the comfort woman issue, and to show their opposition of the way Abe administration continues to meander around the issue of comfort women and their commission of World War II crimes.
Korean community held a demonstration on Wednesday, and the two men joined the community at the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C. to protest the recent “World War II apology” by Prime Minister Abe. Moon-Hyung Rhee (Co-Chair) and Jungsil Lee (President) of WCCW (Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues) stated their strong disagreement with the PM’s half-hearted apology, stating Japan’s shameless disregard for their past wrongdoings, even after 70 years. The Japanese army systemically raped and killed countless number of women from several Asian countries during World War II, with most of them being Korea, China, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
In a brief review with Baek, he stated, “We rode our bikes from LA to DC, which is about 4,800 km in distance. We wanted to test the limits of humans’ physical ability, and we plan to finish in New York, with the final destination being the UN headquarters and the Japanese Embassy there.” When asked why he felt the need to do this, he replied, “Japanese Government must give a heartfelt apology to the Comfort Women and indemnify them properly. After watching an animation about Comfort Women, I felt that I wanted to do something to lighten their lifetime of burden. During my journey, I met many Korean-Americans who realized they weren’t well aware of this important issue and the history of their mother country. As a proud Korean, I believe it is my duty to spread awareness to the world.”
Sim studies physical education in a university in Korea. He stated, “I want to communicate the importance and the power of knowledge. I’ve demonstrated in front of the Japanese Embassy several times, and after learning the true history, and that the poor women have been suffering trauma when they do simple things like touching or holding hands with men, I simply could not stay put.” After he went to meet a Comfort Woman, he decided that although he didn’t quite understand everything, he wanted to dedicate his time to help the Comfort Women and help them heal. He then said, “Once I am done, I will visit them and inform them of my well being and of the success of this mission.”
Lee of WCCW announced a public statement to the Japanese Government.
After listening to JPM Abe’s statement on August 15, we were all very disappointed. He lost another opportunity to solve the issue by choosing to skirt blame and the responsibility of giving an apology to the ‘Comfort Women,’… he used… to show Japan’s past history as a bystander but also to muffle the nation’s specific wrongdoing as the responsible subject.
More than anything, He stated that he should not put a burden the younger generation who are nothing to do with the war, with apologizing for Japan’s transgressions. But this is exactly the reason the current generation should resolve the past issue to liberate their children from the burden. His irresponsibility towards wartime wrongdoings has been passed on to the next generation.
Many young Japanese told me that they are very uncomfortable with Abe’s stance and feel very sorry to the victims.
Mr. Abe, don’t ignore the facts you will never erase. Instead, the voice will get louder and bigger, and you will be laid desolate.
We command you to face your decision that will shape your nation and people.
WCCW and all other sympathetic persons or organizations all over the world will not stop to educate and promote the victims’ right by all possible means until the justice is realized and until the all victimized women stop crying and smile by witnessing the authentic righteousness.
The WCCW sponsored the cross-country cycling efforts. The two men finish their 80 days of continuous cycling protest as they demonstrate in front of the UN headquarters and the Japanese Embassy in New York on August 28, 2015.
